Warriors fight for match fees

ZIMBABWE national team players set out for Cameroon yesterday for a final warm-up friendly against the Indomitable Lions before going on to Gabon for the African Nations Cup finals – but only after a weekend of high drama in which captain Willard Katsande led his players on a dramatic strike.

In the end, a boycott of an official sendoff function‚ attended by the acting president and cabinet ministers‚ and a weekend of lost training has forced an agreement that is supposed to see the players get to share the money that Zimbabwe are to be paid for their participation in the tournament‚ which starts in Libreville on Saturday.

An agreement for a payment of $5 000 a game (R69 000) has been signed, although there is some scepticism the players will ever see the money.

The Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) have pledged to pay the money by Thursday‚ failure to which the Warriors players have threatened to boycott the tournament.

The players are also pressing for a $6 000 (R82 000) winning bonus.

The football association were offering the players $500 (R6 900) in appearance fees, $50 (R700) in local daily allowances and $150 (R2 000) in foreign daily allowances.

Players did receive $1 500 (R20 000) each in lieu of daily allowances before climbing on to flights to Addis Ababa on Sunday‚ which would take them to Cameroon for yesterday’s friendly against the Indomitable Lions.

Katsande led a boycott of Friday night’s gala dinner as players stayed in their hotel rooms and then tried to negotiate with the sports minister and Zifa.

Continuing with the chaos‚ Katsande’s former Kaizer Chiefs teammate, Mathew Rusike‚ who has signed for a club in Tunisia‚ was accused by Zimbabwean newspapers of swearing at Zifa officials.

Katsande said the labelling of the players as mercenaries was unfair.

“We are asking for what we think we deserve‚ and some people call us that [mercenaries]‚” he said.